By Ahmed Ali Amir
Moroni - Voters went to the polls in the Indian Ocean island state of Comoros on Sunday to elect a new federal assembly, the final stage of a controversial devolution process aimed at bringing stability to the coup-ridden country.
The mainly Muslim Comoros, lying off Africa's east coast between Mozambique and Madagascar, has been rocked by around 20 coups or coup attempts since independence from France in 1975.
The country voted in a new constitution in 2001 to try and end the political instability. Each of the country's three islands was given autonomy and its own local president, overseen by a single Union President, currently Azaly Assoumani.
The elections are the last stage in a complex electoral process aimed at ending years of tension between Azaly and the local presidents of Moheli, Anjouan and Grande Comore islands who have been demanding more political and economic power.
Election officials said polling booths had opened late in some areas on Sunday because organisers lacked sufficient means to distribute electoral materials to all of them in time.
"The electoral material has to be dispatched in maximum security conditions," Oukasha Mohamed Jaffer, an official of the national election commission, said without elaborating.
Seven youths suspected to be supporters of Azaly were arrested in the capital Moroni on Grande Comore for poll-related offences on Saturday evening, five of them for fabricating false electoral cards and two for tearing down electoral lists outside polling booths, police said.
About 225 000 Comorans are eligible to take part in the election on Sunday, with a second round of voting scheduled to take place on April 25. Final results are expected to be published on or about April 28.
Candidates allied to each of the islands' presidents won most seats in polls last month for their separate parliaments, leaving Azaly's supporters with minority representation.
Azaly is not expected to fare much better in the federal assembly elections, with 15 of the 33 members of the federal assembly to be decided by the islands' own assemblies and only 18 members by universal suffrage.
The first task of the federal assembly will be to draw up a basic law on a series of issues left unresolved by the new constitution.
Although the new constitution provided for greater autonomy for the three islands, it failed to tackle the share-out of public financial resources and the relative competence of the federal and island authorities.
The elections are taking place in a brittle political climate, with disputes over last month's polls still unresolved. The March polls were wracked by mutual accusations by pro- and anti-Azaly candidates of electoral intimidation carried out by members of the security forces.